Transcript: Steps Toward Peace

ASATU: We decided to present a position statement to the government of Liberia, informing them to see reason to come to the peace table with the warring faction.

VAIBA: And we said, "Right now, we are demanding, we are not appealing."

LEYMAH: Women in this peace work did not want to be seen as politicians. So let’s not talk about politics. Let’s not talk about the practices of the government because we could be prosecuted for it. Let’s just stick to the word "peace."

LEYMAH: We went to parliament, presented our statement, and said we will continue to sit in the sun and rain until we heard from the president.

VAIBA: And when we got in the street, Leymah was at the front so she wasn’t looking at the back. Everywhere we pass, it was a group of women joining the group. Plus twenty. Plus fifty.

ASATU: At that point in time we didn't care whether we had jobs or not, whether we had food or not, because if we never had peace you wouldn’t have job. Your children wouldn't have gone to school, my husband wouldn't work. And so anybody who thought that way, too, would see reason to sit there.

LEYMAH: Taylor could no longer ignore us. Finally, he decided to meet with us.

LEYMAH: Going to meet Taylor that day was the moment that I’ve lived for.

VAIBA: When Leymah got on stage to read the statement, we were like holding hands and praying, as if to say, "Jesus, give her the strength." I said, "We rebuke any evil force that would make her weak."

ANNOUNCER: Ms. Leymah Gbowee, Coordinator of the Women’s Peace Building Network.

LEYMAH presents statement: We ask the honorable Pro Tem of the Senate, being a woman, and being in line with our cause, to kindly present this statement to his Excellency, Dr. Charles Taylor. With this message: that the women of Liberia, including the IDPs, we are tired of war. We are tired of running. We are tired of begging for bulgur wheat. We are tired of our children being raped. We are now taking this stand, to secure the future of our children. Because we believe, as custodians of society, tomorrow our children will ask us, "Mama, what was your role during the crisis?" Kindly convey this to the president of Liberia. Thank you.

LEYMAH: Taylor and his people could see that popular support was on our side. For the first time, he agreed to our demands that he would go to the peace talks.

LEYMAH: We knew we had to keep the pressure up, so we sent few women to Ghana to mobilize refugee women living there.

LEYMAH: We are their conscience, sitting out here. We are calling to their conscience to do the right thing. And the right thing now is to give the Liberian women and their children the peace that they so desperately need.

ABU: We took the opinion of the women with all seriousness. I found an ally in them.

ABU: We on the mediation side, we felt the women were doing a good thing, trying to make their men see reason.

SUGARS: We’d been talking behind the scenes to the various warlords to negotiate, you know, "OK, so, yes, this is your position. What will you be comfortable with?" So that when you went to talk to the other side, you could then be able to negotiate with the other side.

ABUBAKAR: The women kept going from one delegate to the other, from one hotel to the other, trying to influence these delegates. And the belligerents have really come to the point they have just but captured the whole of the government of Liberia. So, during the peace talks, really they were talking about power, about position, about a job, and the control of the resources.

ASATU: We were still going at the fish market during the war. While the peace talk was taking place, we were still at the fish market every morning, and we were still fasting and praying. There were missiles, there were shooting, there were stray bullets. And then we continued.